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September 22, 2021
The partnership will be a joint market collaboration to improve data interoperability and deliver patient-directed access in the U.S. and Canada
Toronto, ON – September 22nd 2021
Smile CDR Inc., a leading health data storage and integration company, today announced a partnership with IDENTOS Inc., a leader in digital identity and access control technology, to enable better access, security and patient control of health information. The decision to marry capabilities and form the joint market collaboration is founded on a common vision for the future of health information access and the significance of what User Managed Access (UMA) will do to transform the way people experience and manage their healthcare information.
Under the partnership, Smile CDR and IDENTOS will solve long-standing data integration challenges by offering enhanced products and services that ensure both data interoperability and seamless sharing of health information between existing applications, such as electronic medical records and medical claims databases.
“Smile CDR and IDENTOS share the same vision of connecting health information in a way that is patient centric and delivers value across the healthcare system,” said Mike Cook, Chief Executive Officer of IDENTOS Inc. “I’m looking forward to improving how data is shared throughout the patient journey, now with Smile CDR.”
Currently, patients in the U.S. have little to no control over their health information and few systems are fully interoperable. To address this issue, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) enforced an Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule (CMS-9115-F) earlier this summer. The rule addresses barriers to the secure exchange of health information that limit the ability of patients to access essential health information. Smile CDR’s expertise in interoperability and reduction of barriers between information and care for healthcare services, combined with IDENTOS’ UMA designed access control technology, significantly improve healthcare organization's productivity and patient experience with patient directed access and easy mobilization of data.
For IDENTOS’ joint customers, the partnership in the U.S. also brings access to a growing marketplace of ‘SMART’ enabled apps, which allow third-party applications to connect to electronic health record data and provide a variety of architectures for how they integrate.
“We are focused on continuing to build out the infrastructure for the internet of health to improve patient lives and their ability to access their data, while also providing greater value to health systems and insurers,” said Duncan Weatherston, Chief Executive Officer of Smile CDR. “With IDENTOS’ UMA 2.0 platform and digital navigator technologies, we have greater capacity to realize our vision and expand our offerings.”
Smile CDR and IDENTOS have already joined forces in Canada to implement and deliver Smile CDR’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) data repository and IDENTOS’ UMA designed access control technology for joint customers. This new partnership marks the beginning of a larger collaboration to bring together patient data and digital identity following IDENTOS’ recent, official entry to the U.S. marketplace.